Recipes
Principles of vegetarianism
Contrary to popular belief, being vegetarian is not a strict requirement for Buddhists. For example, many followers of the Tibetan tradition rely on meat in their diet. However, it is probably true to say that the majority of Buddhists are vegetarian. For many, not eating meat is an important aspect of respecting the value and dignity of all sentient beings.
If you are new to vegetarianism or are considering "converting", here are some points to consider:
Your body will take a while to adjust to its new diet, and you should not expect it to just carry on performing exactly as before while you are in the transition period. Dr Ella Jardine estimates that it can take about a year to make the adjustment, and in that time you may feel tired and so on.Your body may also enter periods of "detoxification" from a meat diet, and you should allow for these.Try to learn what your body needs from its new diet. This can be a challenging learning curve, since most of us were not raised vegetarian and we have to get to know ourselves in a new way in adulthood!It is common practice to first eliminate the red meats from your diet, and once you have stabilised on this level you can start to eliminate chicken as well, followed by fish. (However, many people who consider themselves vegetarian do still eat fish).If you do develop health problems after becoming vegetarian, make sure that you are getting enough iron, vitamin B, and protein. Some people find that they need to go back to eating meat again for a while (perhaps even a couple of years) and then change to vegetarianism again.Vitamin B and iron are easy to boost via nutritional supplements.Good protein sources include all pulses (lentils, split peas etc.), eggs (for non-vegans), soya, tofu (made from soya), cheese and yoghurt (for non-vegans).You should be getting about 1 gram of protein for each kilogram of your body weight, per day. This is a rough estimate only, as people can differ widely in their protein needs.For example, if you weigh 80 kg, you need at least 80 g of protein.Most foods contain a mix of protein and other nutritional substances. For example, 100 g of cheese may give you about 23 g of protein, with the remainder including quite a lot of fat. One "Fry's" frozen sausage (available in most supermarkets) contains 12 g of protein.Many food products have the exact nutritional breakdowns printed on their wrappings.If you feel the need to ask a nutritionist or health professionals about diet, be sure to consult someone who is vegetarian or vegetarian-friendly.Expect some social problems associated with vegetarianism, e.g. judgemental attitudes and sarcastic comments, warnings about how bad it is for your health, a restricted choice in most restaurants, and so on. Try to remember that the source of most of this is that people fear or criticise what is unknown and unfamilliar to them. Most westerners don't know much about vegetarianism and see it as faddish or even dangerous. But the numbers of vegetarians are increasing all the time, and if you want to meet a whole bunch of happy and healthy vegetarians, come and visit Emoyeni and meet its staff and guests!The following sections provide some of Emoyeni's most popular recipes, from breakfast through lunch and not forgetting our most enjoyable evening soups. Some of our cake and biscuit recipes are also given.
